I had a great visit with my family, it was very refreshing and I got more tan than I have in ages. Also did a ton of kayaking and canoeing and tubing, and I feel in much better shape and noticeably stronger, feels good. I got back on Friday night, spent a couple of hours with my girl, and then Saturday I got picked up in preparation for driving 3 hours to play a show with my band. On the way to the band house my bandmate (band leader) said there was no PA at the venue and that we should check out keyboard amps at Guitar Center because he has a new credit card with 18 months of no interest and would front me and I could pay him back with gig pay or however I wanted. I've been wanting a keyboard amp. I ended up getting a Roland KC-600 and I LOVE it.

Finally I can control my own sound and not rely on the quality of the PA at the venue and the attentiveness of the sound guy. It sounds warmer too since it's a tube amp, and it cuts through beautifully, no more dealing with sometimes not being loud enough. The show went great, the crowd was so into it and a lot of people raved to us afterwards. In fact it was hard to take down my stuff because some people wouldn't stop talking to me but that's a good problem to have.

A really sexy girl was dancing right in front of me and was really focused in on my playing, and afterwards she kept hugging me. We got as many free drinks as we wanted and someone went next door and bought us a pizza and the owner of the venue was also raving and wants us back, and we talked to people who want to book us at other places in that town.
I saw a girl that I have hung out with multiple times but never truly met, always in a group, she's friends with my friend's band. Anyway we recognized each other and hung out before the show and during the set break. Originally we were going to find a KOA campground and camp there, but I inquired about a place to stay, and this girl had us all come over to her friend's house, plus a few of their friends, instead. He was so hospitable, such a nice guy, they all were. I ended up taking the 4-MMC I just received and had a really fun night, drank some beers, talked (couldn't stop talking). At 6am the girl who was hugging me a lot came over and we ended up talking quite a bit. She was cool, definitely was attracted to her quite a bit and I think she was into me too but nothing happened and I didn't try to make anything happen, in fact I would bet I was giving off unavailable vibes. My girl has been making comments about making sure that I save most of myself for her and sort of suggesting that she bets I get a lot of female attention at shows... and on top of that she talks about how after a long time some openness in a relationship can be a good thing. It sort of feels like she is telling me it's okay, but I dunno. I definitely enjoy the attention in any case. My girl and I are at a bit of a weird place because she hardly ever feels like having sex these days because she's depressed and it makes her not horny and then sex is unpleasant for her. She's really upset about it but it is what it is. Very frustrating. We're still really affectionate and cuddly which is good, but it's getting hard for me to not be frustrated about it.
Anyway I ended up staying up with my drummer until 8am, then we fell asleep, well, he fell asleep, I laid there until 9am and then next thing I knew it was 10am and our guitar player/lead guy (who is usually very responsible and went to bed early, he also always drives) wanted to get going. I felt a little rough but not bad, ended up taking my last dose of 4-MMC which surprisingly was quite nice and I felt good the rest of the day. We got back and then his girlfriend's dad wanted to do a new band photo shoot (all of the material we have for press kits and for the website are all the old lineup from before I joined and when it was a 7 piece). So we did that. He was funny but super intense, it was kind of a chore because it started raining super hard, and I ran for cover and he yelled at me for doing something he didn't tell me to do, he was like "I'm doing you a favor and I'm NOT used to being ignored, so next time I tell you to do something, do it". But whatever, we got good pictures and he and I had a good talk afterwards.
After that I went home and hung out with my girl, I hadn't really seen her for over a week except for a couple of hours Friday night. That was really nice, just relaxed, and got super tired and fell asleep after a while.
Great week/weekend.

This week I have shows with my other band on Thursday and Saturday, and then the next weekend I'm playing a music festival with (what has become) the main band (the one I played with this weekend). It's a lot of work and travel but fuck if it isn't the most fun and rewarding thing I've ever been involved in.
